UPDATE: A CNBC spokesman says the site did not crash today, although traffic has been awesome. The company projects it will have served 15 million pageviews for the day, which comes in slightly below the site's financial crisis record of 22 million pageviews. Still, it's been a "very good day" for traffic, according to CNBC spokesman Kevin Goldman.
See updated version of the post below.
It may be a coincidence, but CNBC.com crashed was not available to us roughly around the same time that the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled below the 8,000 level. (Both the index and the CNBC web site are back up now.)
Assuming the site cratered under But a surge in traffic doesn't necessarily mean CNBC will profit from all those pageviews. The cable network enjoyed record TV ratings in October, but is still reportedly on the verge of cutting its budget by 10 percent, which may include job cuts.